Combat Suggestions

Hello everyone.

At the moment, I feel there's a problem with combat in Istaria: It's too slow paced. This is specially true for bipeds due to high cast times for spells and long ability cooldowns, and it makes fighting monsters boring.

There are two solutions to this problem. The first one is simple: cut spell, weapon and ability delays and recycle times in half and, to compensate, double monster stats. This way there'll be more buttons to press and therefore, more fun.


The second solution (cumulative with the first one) isn't so simple and this is assuming it can even be implemented with the current engine: adding spell/ability procs. Example: whenever you damage an enemy with Ethereal Paroxysm, you have a 10% chance of making your next (Improved) Theft of Life of the same tier instant cast, with 50% increased damage and 100% chance of proc'ing its techs (like Romp, Critical Strike or Scorn).

Or maybe: your Power Shot punctures the target for 30 seconds. Whenever your Elemental Arrow hits a punctured target, it gains bonus effects based on which element(s) the enemy was hit with (if any):
Ice - Bitter Cold: slows the target by an additional 30% (stacking additively);
Flame - Detonate: the target explodes, dealing damage equal to the total damage the current rank of engulf would deal to the target and spreads the debuff to all enemies within 10 meters.
Lightning - Energy Conduit: Increases your target's delay and recycle times by 15% while reducing your own for the same amount for 15 seconds (ranged attacks only).
Spirit - Soul Reap: Marks the target for 20 seconds, causing all allies who attack the target to heal for 10% of the damage dealt.

Or even: Your Smash resets the recycle on your Power Strike and Whirlwind Attack and makes your next Cleave or Multistrike do 50% more damage and hit the enemy nearest to your target for the same amount.

Don't think I forgot dragons: Snarl fears another nearby enemy that's not under attack, putting it under the effects of Dragon Fear.

Your melee attacks have a 15% chance of resetting the recycle on your Claw Strike (including Claw Strike itself).
Using Claw Strike reduces the remaining recycle on your Refreshing Breeze by 5 seconds and your Shield of Gold by 3 seconds and makes your next Tempest, Blast, Gust or Barrage (the best spell you have the requirements to cast and that is fully recycled becomes instant first; if none are available then the spell that has the least recycle time left is chosen) instant cast.

Your Silver Strike and Ravage reset the recycle on your Breeze (the scribable ones; highest level spell you can cast) and make it instant cast.

Whenever you kill an enemy, your next Primal Health is instant cast.
(you're seeing a lot of instant casts, that's on purpose; I've seen a lot of dragons not use their spells; this is an incentive to use them)

Whenever you hit a target with Gold Rage, your next Breath of Fire/Ice/Lightning/Acid gains bonus effects:
Fire: Does 150% more damage.
Ice: Increases all spell damage taken by the target by 25% (not just flame damage)
Lightning: Spreads the Gold Rage debuff to all enemies hit.
Acid: Speeds up the damage over time ticks by 100% (1 tick every 5 seconds) for the same damage per tick for 100% more damage overall. Additionally, every tick erodes the target, reducing its armor by 5%, stacking additively for the duration of the Acrid Sizzle debuff.


Note that these changes I'm proposing are only supposed to make combat more enjoyable; that's why I'm suggesting monsters to be strengthened accordingly in order not to make killing things too easy.

Furthermore, most of the suggestions I posted were just things I came up on the spot; they probably won't be balanced and I obviously didn't cover every single school in Istaria, so please bear that in mind.

Also, I will reiterate I'm aware this may not be possible with the current engine, but I feel that should these changes be doable, they would be beneficial. Thank you for reading.

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on combat!

One thing we'd love to see is feedback on recent ability changes that are currently in testing on Blight. This modifies the abilities for Dragons and 4 base schools of bipeds (Warrior, Cleric, Mage and Scout). Getting good feedback on these abilities and how they help combat flow and gameplay would go a long way to helping us push these changes and others further up the schools to the upper levels.

Thanks for replying Amon. I will surely try out the school changes.

This sounds like a wonderful idea. However, I feel this shouldn't be given to dragons or bipeds right away. Maybe upon completing some kind of rebirth/awakening quest at a high level (80~100)?

Not sure how difficult that would be to implement; you'd have to write the questline, possibly create new bosses, etc, but I'm all for your idea. ^^

I feel like bosses or at least epic bosses should get into this too. Instant Blood Bats, anyone? ;)